The Mineralava Tour

On
January 25, 1923, there was a brief announcement in the New York papers,
Rudolph Valentino and his not-quite bride Winifred Hudnut would soon embark
on an exhibition dance tour on the B.F. Keith Circuit . The projected tour
would crisscross the United States with a grueling schedule of approximately
eighty-eight stops (in the end much more than eighty-eight).

Set
to begin in early February 1923, the Valentinos would travel in a private
and elaborately appointed Pullman car. The Valentinos would view the vistas
of the cool Pacific Northwest of Seattle, Washington to the humid South of
Atlanta Georgia from luxury of the Pullman for a punishing five months. As
punishing as the rail travel and one-night-stands would have been, the
Valentinos did not travel alone, nor did they travel without the niceties.

The
exhibition portion of the dance tour began in Detroit, Michigan with the
pair dancing at the Majestic Institute the first week of February. There
were no dancing or beauty contests held at this stage of the tour. This was
clearly a warm-up and rehearsal period for the Valentinos to fine-tune their
dance program and the promotional part of the program before the tour began
in earnest. The Valentinos then moved to St. Louis, Missouri, performing
three shows daily. It was in St. Louis that Rudolph Valentino made one of
many broadcasts on the radio on February 14. He took the opportunity to
speak about "What is Wrong with the Movies" to add fuel to his fight against
Famous Players Lasky in order to win better quality scripts and productions.
This would be repeated at various stops across the country.

Continuing on to Chicago for the remainder of February 1923, the Valentinos danced
at two different venues with two and three shows daily, seven days a week.
In Chicago, the
Valentinos moved from the elegance of the private Pullman
to the grandeur of the Blackstone Hotel in downtown Chicago.
The Valentinos continued their engagement at the Marigold through early
March.

It
was also during the Chicago
stop that the Valentinos planned to remarry. The one-year period of waiting
time was over on March 13 and to Rudolph Valentino's frustration, he was
still legally unable to make Natacha his bride in the state of Illinois.
Hasty plans were made and on March 14, Valentino, Rambova, and a retinue of
friends and witnesses motored eastward across the Illinois border to Crown
Point, Indiana and to the Lake County Courthouse for a civil ceremony.

"They were recognized immediately [that] they descended from the bridal car
and a large crowd of the curious gathered to watch them go through the
formality of securing a license. Valentino discarded his movie name
for the occasion, giving the name of Rudolpho Guglielmi. The bride gave her
name as Winifred de Wolfe, she also having been divorced. Into the
office of Howard H. Kemp the couple and their bridal party marched –
flappers, matrons and urchins tagging at their heels until an uncompromising
door was slammed in their faces while the ceremony was being performed.”

The wedding ceremony was reported a bit more sedately in the local Crown
Point newspaper:

"After securing the necessary license at the county clerk's office, in which
Valentino gave his name as Rudolph Gugliema (sic), aged 28, and his bride as
Winifred DeWolfe, aged 26. The couple went immediately to the office of
Judge Kemp and the ring ceremony was performed which made them man and wife.
… When it became noised about that the famous screen artists were in the
city, a crowd quickly gathered curious to see Valentino and his bride and
they were given an impromptu ovation and showered with congratulations as
the party started Chicago-ward after the ceremony."

With no time for even a brief honeymoon, the Valentinos returned to Chicago
to continue the dance tour.

The
Valentinos left Chicago
entraining to Omaha, Nebraska, on the first leg of the journey that would
criss-cross the U.S. and Canada. Valentino was not only hawking the
Mineralava preparations, he was hawking himself and trying to gain support
for his (and Natacha's) ideals with regard to movie-making.

There were some stops where Valentino received less than stellar press, but,
for the most part, he was received very well. The public was, of
course, curious to see both Valentino and Rambova in person. It gave
Rudolph Valentino an opportunity to express his displeasure with the studio
system and attempt to drum up some support for his vision of better
pictures. In many of the reports this is the part of the evening that
some audience members found fault with. They wanted to see Valentino,
but not necessarily hear him! At least not talking about his beef with
the studios. There were complaints that the exhibition dance of
Valentino and Rambova was far too short.

At
some stops, Natacha was not Valentino's dancing partner. Begging off
because of illness or family business, Natacha disappeared and was replaced
by another dancer during part of the tour. Mercifully, the tour ended in
late June 1923 and the Valentino's exhausted and in much need of a vacation,
boarded the Aquitania for trek through the streets of London, Paris and back
home to Italy for Valentino.

The
Valentinos returned to New York in the fall and Valentino where was
contracted to appear at Madison Square Garden on November 28, 1923 to help
choose the winner of the beauty contest from among the 88 beauties who were
able to attend. Valentino was not a lone judge, a large group performed the
final vote. The gala at Madison Square Gardens was filmed by David O.
Selznick (son of Valentino's one time employer Lewis J. Selznick) and a
short film was released to cash in on Valentino's absence from the screen,
'Rudolph Valentino and His 88 American Beauties."

Norma Niblock of Toronto, Canada was crowned The Queen of Beauty this
evening, with four runners up.

Mineralava Tour

In late 1922, disgusted with the quality of his latest
films and at the urging of Natacha Rambova, Valentino quit Famous
Players-Lasky.

Famous Players-Lasky retaliated by filing an injunction
which barred Valentino from performing in any fashion.

In January 1923, it was announced that the pair would soon partake in
a cross-country dancing exhibition tour, sponsored by Mineralava
Beauty Products.